Having Our Heart Enlarged to Work Together with God by an All-Fitting Life

In 2 Corinthians we see the ministers of the new covenant, their ministry, and how it is produced.

We see that all believers in Christ are the ambassadors of God with the ministry of reconciliation, helping others to be reconciled to God further (see 2 Cor. 5).

In chapter 6 we see that we are co-workers with God living by an all-fitting life (2 Cor. 6:1).

The apostles went through a lot of persecution, opposition, rejection, and evil reports, but in all things they lived by an all-fitting life, the divine life in their spirit, and so all these seemingly negative situations became opportunities for them to carry out their ministry.

Even more, their heart was enlarged to receive all people and their mouth was opened to speak the word of God frankly. We need to be saved much more in the divine life and have our heart enlarged so that we may grow in life and be more reconciled to God.

Lord, keep us turning to You as the all-fitting life in our spirit. May we not live by our own life or try to fit the situations with our own capacity. Lord, we open to You and we come to You! Reconcile us further with You! Save us much more in Your life! Enlarge our heart to receive and care for all men!

Co-Workers with God with an All-Fitting Life

We need to work together with God by a life and not by a gift. The divine life we received in our spirit is all-sufficient and all-mature, able to fit all situations and able to endure any kind of treatment!

When we live by this life and work by this all-fitting life, we are able to accept any kind of environment and work under any kind of condition!

And even more: when working by this life, we not only are not distracted or put down by the negative or opposing things around us, but we all the more take any kind of opportunity for the carrying out of our ministry! What a life!

This is NOT our human life at its best; our life can’t make it, can’t be it, and can’t do it. But we have the divine life in our spirit and we need to work together with God by this life which can fit all situations, ready to minister Christ!

This is the culmination of being saved in life – if we have been fully saved and have an all-fitting life, then any situation or circumstance is the right one for us to minister life to others (Phil. 1:20; 4:22; 2 Tim. 4:2a; cf. 2 Chron. 1:10).

Lord, we want to practice living by the divine life, the all-fitting life! Grow in us, Lord! We want to work together with You not by our good will or intentions but by the all-fitting life in our spirit!

Having Our Heart Enlarged to Embrace All God’s People

In 2 Cor. 6:10-11 we see that the apostle’s heart was enlarged toward all the believers to accept them all, but because the Corinthian believers were immature and childish, they were constricted in their inward parts.

We need to have our hearts enlarged to accept all God’s people. This means that we need to grow in life and open to the Lord that we may mature in the divine life and have our heart enlarged.

To be constricted means that we are like children, straightened and contracted in our inward parts when we meet others, narrow in our inward affections toward people, and easily offended by those who correct us or criticize us.

But for us to have and live by an all-fitting life, we need an enlarged heart, a heart to embrace all of God’s people (2 Cor. 6:11-13; 2 Chron. 1:10; 1 Kings 4:29). This is what it means to be fully reconciled to God – to be enlarged in our heart by growing and maturing in life.

Many times we are put in environments or circumstances where we are constricted, we don’t want to be there, and yet there is someone there that needs Christ.

We need to have our heart enlarged to the extent that even in places and things where we don’t feel like it (in our natural man) or we don’t like (in our natural man) we would have a heart open to them to speak Christ to others. We need to speak the Word of God in season and out of season.

Many times we are with someone we never met, and they are open to fellowship. We shouldn’t refer him to someone else as “more mature” but we need to have our heart enlarged to speak Christ to them.

Lord, Enlarge our Heart!

We don’t know our heart. We have no idea what is in us until the Lord puts us with certain people or in certain situations, and then we are exposed.

But one thing is for sure: we are either enlarged in our heart to receive all people and speak to all about the Lord – in THIS AGE, or He will do this in the next age, and we will miss the wedding feast!

In the New Jerusalem, God will have a corporate building of many God-men who are transparent – they are fully open and enlarged, with gates toward all corners of the earth, always ministering life!

But what about today? What about us? Are we constricted in ourselves? Did we open to anyone recently to share the gospel with them? Did we bring anyone to the Lord and in the church life in the past one year?

The measure of our growth in life determines the extent to which our heart is enlarged.

When our heart is enlarged, we are able to embrace and love all believers regardless of their condition – we will not criticize, condemn, find fault, correct, or warn them, but we will minister life to them according to the measure they are open to receive.

Also, our mouth needs to be opened that we may be free to speak to all believers frankly concerning the real situation into which they have been misled – yet do so by the all-fitting life in us, one with the Lord, and in love (Matt. 5:7; 6:14-15; 7:1-2).

For this we all need to tell the Lord,

Lord, enlarge our heart! Lord, grow in us. May we not be constricted in our inner parts, but be enlarged and opened to receive all the believers. We want to work together with You, Lord, by an all-fitting life. May our heart be enlarged to receive all men, and may our mouth be open to speak to others about You!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians (msgs. 41-42), as partially quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 4 (entitled, Ambassadors of Christ with the Ministry of Reconciliation and Co-workers of God with an All-fitting Life).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # We work together with God by a life: / All-sufficient, / All-mature; / Able to work / In any condition, / To take any kind / Of opportunity / For the carrying out of our ministry; / All-fitting life!
  # Oh, may Thy Cross within me / Deepen its work and burn / In me enlarge Thy measure, / And me to ashes turn. / Oh, may Thy Spirit fill me / Each day more than before, / And may Thy living water / On me and thru me pour.
  # O Father, Son and Spirit, send / Us increase from above; / Enlarge, expand all Christian hearts / To comprehend Thy love; / And make us all go on to know / With nobler powers conferred: / The Lord hath yet more light and truth / To break forth from His Word.